I am thankful for this opportunity to deliver my speech on the motion of thanks for the royal address by His Majesty The Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

Before I continue my speech, I request the permission of my friends on this side and over on that side as I have many issues to debate; therefore, I will not have time to give way to interventions.

I wish to take this opportunity to raise several issues which will give a more accurate picture of Barisan Nasional (BN)’s track record under the leadership of The Hon. Prime Minister (MP for Pekan) approaching GE14, so that the rakyat can know the truth about BN’s track record.

Media Statement by Dr. Ong Kian Ming, Member of Parliament for Serdang and Assistant National Director for Political Education for the DAP, on the 2nd of March 2018

Imagine running 42km in slightly under 2 hours 30 minutes in 5-degree Celsius weather and setting what you thought was a national record for the marathon, only to find out that your record couldn’t be ratified by your country’s governing body for athletics. That was exactly what happened to Leo Tan in last Sunday’s 2018 Tokyo Marathon. He set what he thought was a national record, clocking a nett time of 2 hours 25 minutes and 28 seconds (gun time of 2 hours 25 minutes and 32 seconds). Not far behind Leo, was Muhaizar Muhamad, 2017 SEA Games marathon bronze medallist, who clocked an impressive 2:27:21 nett time in his first overseas marathon. The times of both Leo and Muhaizar were faster than the Malaysian marathon record in the record books (more on this later). But for the Malaysian Athletics Federation (MAF) to ratify Leo’s timing as a national record, he had to undergo a doping test. Since both Leo and Muhaizar were not considered as elite runners (the winner, Dickson Chumba of Kenya, won in a time of 2 hours 5 minutes and 30 seconds), the Tokyo Marathon race director did not allow them to take the doping test. This was noted by Leo in a facebook post (see below).